Essay Collections by Acclaimed Writers

Here, Joan Didion covers ground from Washington to Los Angeles, from a TV producer’s gargantuan “manor” to the racial battlefields of New York’s criminal courts. At each stop, she uncovers the mythic narratives that elude other observers: Didion tells us about the fantasies the media constructs around crime victims and presidential candidates; she gives us new interpretations of the stories of Nancy Reagan and Patty Hearst; she charts America’s rollercoaster ride through evanescent booms and hard times that won’t go away. A bracing amalgam of skepticism and sympathy, After Henry is further proof of Joan Didion’s infallible radar for the true spirit of our age.

These pages give us Morrison’s searing prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of language, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and her heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. She looks deeply into the fault lines of culture and freedom: The foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, “black matter(s),” human rights, the artist in society, and the Afro-American presence in American literature. And she turns her incisive critical eye to her own work (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, Paradise) and that of others. An essential collection from an essential writer, The Source of Self-Regard shines with the literary elegance, intellectual prowess, spiritual depth, and moral compass that have made Toni Morrison our most cherished and enduring voice.

Written as a series of autobiographical essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Rebecca Solnit’s life to explore issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. Solnit is interested in the stories we use to navigate our way through the world, and the places we traverse, from wilderness to cities, in finding ourselves or losing ourselves. While deeply personal, her own stories link up to larger stories, from captivity narratives of early Americans to the use of the color blue in Renaissance painting, not to mention encounters with tortoises, monks, punk rockers, mountains, deserts, and the movie Vertigo. The result is a distinctive, stimulating voyage of discovery.

“I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too.” Inspired by these few words, spoken by Josephine Baker at the 1963 March on Washington, Hanif Abdurraqib has written a profound and lasting reflection on how Black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. Each moment in every performance he examines — whether it’s the twenty-seven seconds in “Gimme Shelter” in which Merry Clayton wails the words “rape, murder,” a schoolyard fistfight, a dance marathon, or the instant in a game of spades right after the cards are dealt — has layers of resonance in Black and white cultures, the politics of American empire, and Abdurraqib’s own personal history of love, grief, and performance. Touching on Michael Jackson, Patti LaBelle, Billy Dee Williams, the Wu-Tang Clan, Dave Chappelle, and more, Abdurraqib writes prose brimming with jubilation and pain. With care and generosity, he explains the poignancy of performances big and small, each one feeling intensely familiar and vital, both timeless and desperately urgent.

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino is a razor-sharp collection of nine original essays exploring the cultural forces that shape our identities and perceptions. With wit, honesty, and intellectual rigor, Tolentino examines the contradictions of modern life — from the toxic nature of the internet and the rise of millennial scams to the cult of self-optimization and the shifting role of women in literature. Each essay serves as a mirror reflecting the absurdities and illusions of contemporary culture, revealing how difficult it is to see ourselves clearly in a society obsessed with self-image. Tolentino’s voice is both fearless and nuanced, blending personal insight with critical analysis to uncover the self-delusion embedded in everyday life. Written with clarity and a biting sense of humor, Trick Mirror is a brilliant and unsettling guide through the complexities of the 21st century, solidifying Tolentino as one of the most essential thinkers of her generation.

George Saunders’s first foray into nonfiction consists of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders’s travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the “Buddha Boy” of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders’s endeavor into the art of the essay is a testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker.

With clarity, conviction, and passion, James Baldwin delivers a dire warning of the effects of racism that remains urgent nearly sixty years after its original publication. In the first of two essays, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” Baldwin offers kind and unflinching counsel on what it means to be Black in the United States and explains the twisted logic of American racism. In “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind,” Baldwin recounts his spiritual journey into the church after a religious crisis at the age of fourteen, and then back out of it again, as well as his meeting with Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Throughout, Baldwin urges us to confront the oppressive institutions of race, religion, and nationhood itself, and insists that shared resilience among both Black and white people is the only way forward. As much as it is a reckoning with America’s racist past, The Fire Next Time is also a clarion call to care, courage, and love, and a candle to light the way.

With her keen eye, Annie Dillard has a penchant for paradox, and yearning for truth, Dillard asks: Why do we exist? Where did we come from? How can one person matter? Dillard searches for answers in a powerful array of images: Pictures of bird-headed dwarfs in the standard reference of human birth defects; ten thousand terra-cotta figures fashioned for a Chinese emperor in place of the human court that might have followed him into death; the paleontologist and theologian Teilhard de Chardin crossing the Gobi Desert; the dizzying variety of clouds. Vivid, eloquent, haunting, For the Time Being evokes no less than the terrifying grandeur of all that remains tantalizingly and troublingly beyond our understanding.

In Discontent and its Civilizations, Mohsin Hamid — who has lived across Pakistan, the United States, and Britain — offers a deeply personal yet globally informed perspective on the cultural, political, and ideological upheavals of the 21st century. Hamid reflects on the shifting identities and values shaped by war, migration, and globalization. He explores the post-9/11 world, from drone warfare to the nuances of daily life in Lahore, offering insights that cut through polarized narratives. His essays span topics from romance and pop culture to religion and geopolitics, revealing how individuals grapple with ideology and uncertainty. Through his cosmopolitan lens, Hamid challenges the West’s anxieties and the East’s volatility, weaving a tapestry of human experience that bridges emotional depth with intellectual clarity. The result is a thoughtful, engaging portrait of a world in flux — and how we might live meaningfully within it.